dear blog, sorry about the neglect. here's some pictures of recent things.

This poster was a huge amount of work (that I made for myself really... no one asked me to be a tard and do multiple allnighters on it), but at least it kinda shows. Click on the pic to see it bigger. There's a lot of stuff going on in there. Some narrative too, but odds on you'll only pick up on it if you're massively sleep deprived. I hate logos.



Album cover for Flip Grater. Stack o' cups. Stacks! This one was a bit of a mission... part of the reason I haven't updated lately is because my personal life went to hell, taking all my creative drive along with it. I struggled for ages to even come up with a concept for this cover... actually I had an initial concept that'll find a new life in another form, but yeah. It got done in the end.



This was designed for a one-off LP cover for a compilation put together by Mr Jonathan Bree of The Brunettes. Sadly copyright and vinyl press issues seem to have killed the whole deal for the time being. I'm considering dropping the text off and just doing an art print. Any takers?


In Fighting the Shakes related news, we've been chosen to open for Against Me! at their Wellington show on May 6. New Wave was one of my favourite albums of 07 so I'm really stoked about it! We're also opening for the Mint Chicks at their next welly show on May 9th.
We shot a video for Your Life Is Over last weekend, which I've just begun to edit. No idea how it's gonna come together, but something'll go up on here when it's done.
and finally, we're breaking up at the end of May.

should have some more new stuff to lay on you in the next couple of weeks!

dang!

A blog called You the Designer recently made a post titled '16 Sensational Poster Designs'. I was pretty amazed to see the recent poster I did for The National in there. Like really really pretty amazed. What's funny/sad is the poster wasn't used very extensively to promote the gig at all. But hey, now shitloads of people have gotten to see it.

so yeah, that's news.

Half-Handed Cloud

Poster for a show that's pretty soon. This one was also pretty much all done in Flash, bar a couple of modifications at the end in photoshop.
This was sposed to just be a quick and dirty one, but I'm beginning to realise any time I agree to do a poster I can't bring myself to kinda phone it in. Orrr I go and do timeconsuming things like adjust all the types layout by hand to make it appear more random, less rigid.
Also, part of this poster is in part a tip of the hat to Little Friends of Printmaking... not that they'll care, but they're a huge inspiration to me, and I do my best not to rip 'em off where possible. I haven't seen anything new from them for a little while, but I think they transitioned from the gigposter pasture to the far more fertile land of uh.. doing something you'll actually get paid well for.

Anyway, I started this around midnight and finished at about 6:30-7 this morning. I should prrrobably go to bed.

awww yeah

bang!bang!aids!

click for embiggened versions. although there's still more detail you might not really see on that version. I like this umm... AIDS gun? Whatever it is. This was all created in Flash. It's also motivated me to get hold of a Wacom Cintiq 12WX... as much as I like drawing into the comp with my tablet, I have trouble with the whole look one place, draw another thing... stuff takes me far longer than it really should, and I think one of those new tablets would increase my productivity greatly. Will find out as soon as I can source one in NZ, or sort out how to ship one from the US. glee!

theNational

These guys are rad. I still can't get over the fact I'm getting to do posters for these bands, much less the fact that they're all actually coming to New Zealand! doubleyew tee eff as.

Anthems for a Twenty-Seven Year Old Boy

Quick (by my standards anyway) flyer for the upcoming BSS gig. I'm really excited about this! I have a pretty intense poster in the works for this. I love BSS so I'm very very stoked to get to do a poster for them. So I'm doin' it up right.

In other news, I'm teetering on the brink of complete burnout. I've been so busy lately with contracting as well as all the other jobs I commit to that I've had bugger all downtime. Combine that with the usual energy draining relationship issues (or lack thereof) and everything else and yeah... feeling pretty run down and looking forward to having some time to chill out, sit in the sun drinking beer, sit inside all sunburnt due to prior outside sittage, play video games and generally just take it easy. Oh, and screenprint. A lot!

In other other news, I bought a MicroKorg synth yesterday. It's fun. bleepybloop. Not sure if it'll weasel its way into Fighting the Shakes in some capacity, but I wouldn't rule it out. Our new songs are sounding super super promising and awesome by the way. Very poppy (by our standards anyway)!

Okay, back to the grind.

All of a sudden I miss my weekend

This ended up pretty different from what I had originally planned. The text style and things are the same but the eventual execution is significantly different. Anyway, I'm pretty stoked on this. I resisted the urge to do any kind of distressing. I plan on screenprinting a small run of these A2 on black card (minus the bloodly logos, bane of the poster maker).

Been so ridiculously busy that the only way I could get this stuff done was to forgoe much of a weekend. And I have new 360 games that demand to be played! Life's tough. Although at the moment all the contracting work should see me pretty well secure, financially, over the summer, which is inevitably dead as a doornail work wise... still about late Jan.

Your Band's Poster Rocks
November 22 - December 10th
Opening Night: Thursday November 22nd 6pm
Up There Arts Gallery Space
145 Karangahape, Newton, Auckland

"Your Band's Poster Rocks!" a cry frequently overheard by the artists themselves as they stand at the back of the club.... A true test of any poster is found on the walls in university dorms, overcrowded flat living rooms or possibly even framed and hung by the clubs featured. Together with the artists involved, we’ve gathered the last remnants of gigs gone by and for the first time showcasing a New Zealand Artist Only Group Rock Art Show.

This show will contain a collection of New Zealand's continuing & emerging rock poster designers creating original images for national and international modern rock artists, with a sprinkling of "classic art prints" by the likes of Coop and Kozik from the Illicit Archives.

This exhibition will push to the forefront gig-art usually only seen in densely packed foot traffic areas, with limited wall space and posted under the cover of night by dark hoodie wearing vandals (the artists). These complex, handmade advertisements, as different as the creators, juxtapose aural/visual artistry found throughout fluxing city streets country-wide. Each designer is charged with conveying the difficult visual message coupled with a variety of musical styles to translate the idea that a band's street poster is the direct visual representation of how the gig should make the audience feel. This first in an ongoing exhibit will showcase the temporary posted works from Ruban Nielson, Bradley Fafejta, Ed Gains, Alan Holt, Autistk, Mat Scheurich, Heckman & Ben Thompson.

We make the posters because we love to.

Thanks to:
Up There Arts - Illicit Clothing - BFM - Cheese on Toast - Jagermeister

So, this exhibition opened in Auckland last night, with about 8 of my posters in it. I've been way too busy with contracting work to make it up there, which was really gutting considering it's the first real exhibition I've ever had work in. To make matters worse, I was getting txt's from Pete Heckman who put the show together saying people were wanting to buy stuff and did I have more of X poster and could they buy the ones I'd marked Not For Sale... which is awesome.
The NFS ones were digital prints I had done of posters I lacked big copies of (in this case, Kristin Hersh, the Fighting the Shakes that won Poster of the Week on Gigposters.com, and The Gossip).

but yeah.. if you're in auckland and read this blog, go check out the exhibition and tell me how it is!